What’s New
The troubled Eastern Gateway Community College, in Ohio, has announced it is “pausing” registration and enrollment after the spring of 2024. In other words, the college will not hold classes starting this summer and hasn’t announced any timetable to resume them.
It’s a striking turn of events for Eastern Gateway, which increased its enrollment to more than 40,000 students in 2020, from just 3,000 students in 2015, largely thanks to a “free college” deal offered to union members. Nearly all of the students were enrolled in online programs.
A spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Higher Education declined to offer any specifics on whether or when Eastern Gateway might enroll students again.
The Details
The Ohio department’s news release said the college was halting operations to find a way to “resolve ongoing financial difficulties partly due to delayed federal funding.”
The college has been on “heightened cash-monitoring” status with the U.S. Department of Education since August 2022, meaning the institution cannot immediately receive federal financial aid earmarked for its students; Eastern Gateway must pay for that aid out of the college’s own resources and request reimbursement from the department.
After the current semester, nearby Youngstown State University and other community colleges in the region will admit Eastern Gateway students into similar programs — including business, criminal justice, and information technology — on their campuses or online.
The college could also lose accreditation, which would likely ensure that it doesn’t reopen. In a written statement, a spokesperson for the Higher Learning Commission, an accrediting agency, said the commission will have to “look first at what the institution’s pause entails” before evaluating whether to take any kind of action.”
The commission’s governing board “has authority to withdraw an institution’s accreditation if it ceases to operate as a higher-education institution,” the spokesperson wrote.
The Backdrop
While few public colleges ever close, Eastern Gateway’s announcement of an enrollment “pause” comes after years of scrutiny from its accreditor, which raised concerns about academic quality and corruption following the institution’s meteoric growth in online programs.
The “free college” deal, essentially waiving tuition and fees, was offered to members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFl-CIO, a trade union for public employees.
In November 2021, the Higher Learning Commission sent Eastern Gateway a letter detailing numerous problems with that program.
The commission explained that the college was being placed on probation since it had not provided sufficient staff and quality control for all of the new students. Officials had also failed to consistently review learning outcomes or improve low long-term completion rates, the letter said.
In July 2022, the U.S. Department of Education notified Eastern Gateway that its “free college” program for union members violated federal regulations because it was using the state and federal financial-aid dollars to cover the tuition of students who hadn’t applied for that money.
In January 2023, state officials began a criminal investigation into spending by the college’s former leaders. A past president and vice president were charged with stealing from the college. Last month, state prosecutors dropped those charges without explanation.
By August 2023, after discussions with the U.S. Department of Education, the college agreed to shutter its free-college program and repay some of the federal money it had improperly used.
Community colleges rarely get into trouble for skirting the rules, but there are other examples. In 2013, City College of San Francisco lost its accreditation because of its chronic financial problems. That decision set off widespread legal wrangling and political pressure to save the college. Eventually, the college’s accreditor created a special process for the college to maintain accreditation.
More recently, the accreditor that oversees North Idaho College put the institution on “show cause” and gave it just a few months to demonstrate that it could fix longstanding governance problems. The commission has not revoked the college’s accreditation, but the institution remains on “show cause” and must continue to provide reports showing how it’s meeting accreditation standards.
What to Watch For
For most community colleges, however, the real problems relate to a steady decline in enrollment since 2011, exacerbated by the impact of the pandemic. Those numbers have begun to turn around, but many institutions still have far fewer students than they did before.
For some colleges, it’s too late. Wisconsin made the rare decision to close a two-year college in Richland Center after enrollment fell by 90 percent since 2014.
A college closure can be disruptive to students who must navigate a new college in order to finish their degrees. Officials at Youngstown State and the other institutions accepting Eastern Gateway’s students will have to ensure the students get the support they need to continue their education.